Alserkal looks to trail a blaze for Emirati women chess aspirants

Last November, in round eight of the Arab Women’s Chess Championship, Abu Dhabi-raised chess player Rouda Alserkal had a realization.

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If she won the match, she'd earn enough points to be named a Woman Grandmaster - the first from her country, and the entire Gulf region.

Spoiler alert: she did. At only 15, Alserkal etched her name into chess history, becoming a symbol of possibility for young Emirati women in a sport long dominated by men.

Speaking with Reuters from her home chess club in Abu Dhabi, fresh off international tournament appearances in Norway and Romania, Alserkal gets real about the pressures of representing a country, a culture and a gender on the international sporting stage.

"I've travelled to over 35 countries to play chess,” she says before a young girl approaches to request a selfie - and to show Alserkal that she had chosen her image for her phone background.

You first started playing chess at four years old, and you were originally turned away from a chess club for being too young. How did that moment shape you?

“I used to play all the time with my mom, my dad, my sisters. I was begging my mom: “Mom, please take me to a chess club, please take me to a chess club. I just wanted to play chess, you know?